mother

Before Laurie Brookner adopted Kate, she knew her as only as a blown-up, photocopied photograph. On the photograph was a Chinese name: Yu Mingren. Anxiously, Laurie traveled all the way to Jiangsu in China to adopt her. Soon Mingren became Kate. As Laurie held Kate in her arms, she was filled with utmost joy—mixed with a dash of sadness that her daughter would never know her Chinese birth mother. Fifteen years later, Kate and Laurie came to the StoryCorps booth at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco. Kate wanted to ask her mom what it was like when she saw her for the first time.